Biography

Ben Foster

Biography from the Archives of askART

Benjamin Foster's painting specialty was bucolic scenes of the New
England countryside. His style was predominantly Tonalist*
with subdued colors and limited tones---almost exclusively autumn
colors, muted browns, grays and rusts. In Tonalist
tradition, he completed most of his paintings, both oil and watercolor,
in his studio and not on location, en plein air.*

Foster was
born in North Anson, Maine, where he spent his childhood, along with
his artist brother, Charles Foster. For financial reasons, he did
not begin an art career until he was almost age thirty. In
1870, he settled in New York City, and took a mercantile job to support
art training. He attended the Art Students League* in New York
City, and studied privately with Abbott Thayer, whose influence on
Foster was the painting of floral still life.

In 1886, like
many American artists, he went to Paris. He traveled with Leonard Ochtman and
Charles Warren Eaton, with whom he had been sharing a New York studio
at 9 East 17th Street. In Paris, he studied with Aime Morot, Luc
Oliver Merson, and Harry Thompson and exhibited paintings at the Paris
Salon*. He also went to the French countryside including Barbizon
where he did pastoral paintings.

Foster returned to America in 1887, and lived both in Manhattan and
Cornwall Hollow, Connecticut, where he had a country home. Most of his landscape painting was of that area. He sought out
"intimate corners of his environment---usually tree-lined ponds,
fields, and woodlands---that he liked to depict at contemplative times
of day, such as dawn or dusk, and during intermediary times of year."
(Lowrey, 134)

In addition to painting, he wrote art reviews for the New York Evening Post and the Nation.
He was a member of the National Arts Club*, National Academy of Design*,
New York Water Color Society*, National Water Color Society*, Lotos
Club*, California Art Club* and Society of Men Who Paint the Far West*.

He
died in New York City. Upon his death, the National Arts Club
released a memorial notice that described Benjamin Foster as "the ideal
type of artist . . . ardent in seeking deeper meanings, but indifferent
to the casual and popular." (Lowrey, 134)

Carol Lowrey, 'Ben Foster', The Poetic Vision: American Tonalism, p. 134
Peter Falk, Who Was Who in American Art

* For more in-depth information about these terms and others, see AskART.com Glossary http://www.askart.com/AskART/lists/Art_Definition.aspx

From 1870-82, Benjamin Foster worked at odd jobs in New York City until
at age 30 he became dedicated to painting. He became known for
his landscapes painted around his home in Cornwall, Connecticut, which
were admired for their meditative qualities, capturing the atmospheric
effects of dawn and sunset, moonlight and twilight, French critics
compared him to Cazin. He was also a critic, writing for The New York Evening Post and The Nation.

His
work is in the J. Paul Getty Museum, The Muse'e d' Orsay, The
Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
and numerous public and private collections.

Member;
American National Academy, 1901; National Academy, 1904; Soceiety of
American Artists, 1897; New York Water Colors Society; American
Watercolor Society; Century Association.; California Art Club; National
Institute of Arts and Letters; Lotos Club; SC; National Art Club;
Society of Men Who Paint the Far West.

Ben Foster was born in North Anson, Maine on July 31, 1852. He lived in Cornwall Hollow, Connecticut most of his working life and did not pursue art as a career until thirty years of age; he died in 1926. His brother, Charles (1850-1931) was also an accomplished artist. Foster studied under Abbott H. Thayer at the Art Student's League in New York; and Aime Morot and Oliver Merson in Paris.

Among his affiliations, he was a member of: New York Water Color Club; American Water Color Society; Century Association; Society of American Artists; California Art Club; Lotos Club; Salmagundi Club; National Arts Club; and was elected to Associate status in the National Academy of Design in 1901 and Member in 1904. His notable exhibits include: Chicago, 1893 (Gold medal); Cleveland 1895 (prize); Paris Salon 1897 (Foret de Fontainebleau) and 1900 (bronze medal); National Academy of Design 1906, 1909 (Inness gold medal), 1917.

Best known as a landscape painter, Foster's works are actively sought by both private and public collections. His works are held in: Corcoran Gallery of Art; Luxembourg Museum, Paris; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Paris Museum of Modern Art; Oakland Museum, California; and, The Toledo (Ohio) Museum of Art.

Foster is an internationally recognized artist.

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